When people start talking about “brand,” the talk immediately turns to logo design. While a good logo is part of your brand, it is not “THE BRAND.” The brand is how people feel about and view your soccer organization (league, club or tournament). Your brand is what you can leverage to sponsors, advertisers, guest teams, potential players, potential coaches and the media.
We intuitively know what a strong brand looks like within the soccer industry. A strong brand is a club every coach wants to be a part of or every kid wants to play for.
As soccer grows beyond the boundaries of soccer enthusiasts and evangelists, soccer parents and players, a strong brand becomes important to the community at large, including the media and business community. It can also mean the difference between securing a sponsorship or not, good press or bad press; or worse, no press at all.
I recently attended a soccer tournament that is now in its 22nd year, fills up almost 50 hotels and hosts more than 500 teams over a period of three days. The economic impact of the event is estimated to be about $5.2 million dollars due to its draw from out of state teams. It enjoys a reputation unrivaled in the soccer community.
The local newspaper — about 180,000 daily circulation, 290,000 on Sunday — published four stories on the event. The first story was on the front page and lead with “Soccer tournament cause traffic jams across city.” On the second day (Sunday), an article ran with a large color photo and the description of the parking lot as a “…gas-guzzler SUV convention.” In the same article, a manager at one of the local hotels was quoted as saying “… the parents party more than the kids” and followed the quote with a parent’s favorite beverage recipe. The third and fourth stories were more flattering, but they were buried deep in the sports section and ran with no photos.
The host soccer club gives back thousands of dollars in community services, donates jerseys and equipment to teams in South Africa and Nicaragua and its tournament director has been recognized as an ambassador by the local CVB for bringing teams into the area. So, which is the truth: the tournament as a traffic menace or economic asset? The frustrating truth is it is both, depending on how you see the tournament brand.
As soccer becomes more and more embedded into the culture of American sports, the folks who run the leagues, camps and tournaments will need to turn their branding efforts toward the community at large.
Had the tournament illustrated above better managed its brand outside the soccer market, the chances of the tournament being seen as an “economic boon for the local” economy rather than a “traffic-jam event” would have been far more likely. While there is always a chance the media will write an unfavorable article, it is less likely if you are a strong community brand as well as a strong soccer brand.
A strong community brand is also an asset that can be leveraged for sponsorship and advertising dollars. Reach out to the local newspapers and television stations by letting them know who you are and what non-soccer benefits you bring to the community. Invite them to fundraisers, meetings or other activities.
You may also want to open some board positions for members of local companies who are influential within the business community. As dedicated as you are to the SPORT of soccer, the BUSINESS of soccer is what will drive a positive brand image outside soccer.
Your soccer organization is already branded outside of the soccer market; good, bad or indifferent. Take control of your brand and guide it so your non-soccer community sees your soccer organization in the same light as the soccer market does. It is a job that requires vigilance 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, but the rewards in positive community support are worth the effort.
Gerard McLean is President/CEO of Rivershark, Inc. the parent company of TourneyCentral. TourneyCentral produces an end-to-end, web-based soccer tournament management system that handles everything from registration through scheduling and scoring.